Within a couple of weeks, Harvard school administrators hope to have a powerful new tool for identifying COVID-19 infections among students and staff members so as to limit the virus’s spread. Harvard was one of about 130 school districts in Massachusetts chosen to take part in a free diagnostic testing program, so that anyone who tests positive can quarantine and those they have been in contact with can be quickly notified.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Defense Department, is supplying Massachusetts with about 2 million free Abbott BinaxNOW diagnostic tests to distribute to qualifying schools across the state. The Food and Drug Administration authorized these tests for emergency use in late August. The tests use nasal swabs, require no special equipment, and give results in about 15 minutes.
The BinaxNOW test is designed to be used with people who have symptoms of COVID-19, such as fever, cough, or shortness of breath. In some cases, even milder symptoms, such as a runny nose, may justify testing. But, the state’s instructions say, schools are not to use it for broad testing of people who show no symptoms. It is a diagnostic test, not a screening test.
School Superintendent Linda Dwight announced Harvard’s selection for the program in a letter the week before Thanksgiving. She said the decision to apply had been made after consulting the Board of Health and school nurse Colleen Nigzus. Dwight noted testing will be done only with consent—from the individuals if they are adults, or from parents or guardians for anyone under 18.
School nurses will usually be the ones administering the tests, according to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. If a student or staff member here tests positive for COVID-19, Dwight wrote, “then the nurse will talk with the person or their family about the next steps. Our contact tracing for any positive results will begin right away.”
The district is still looking for a screening test for all students and staff, Dwight told the School Committee at its Monday meeting. Last month two companies responded to the district’s request for proposals to provide pooled-sample screening tests, but the costs were out of reach. (See “Residents advocate for COVID-19 screening test in schools” in the Nov. 20 issue of the Press.) Since then, Dwight said, the schools have issued new requests for proposals, and three companies have expressed interest.
School Committee member Shannon Molloy said the language in the school requests had been broadened to include a wider range of test types. “We wanted to get everything we could,” she said, “because with cases rising the way they are, testing is important to us” in keeping the schools open. Molloy also believes the state should offer support for screening tests: “If ever there was a time for us as a board to take a position on whether our state should be supporting this testing, that time is now.”
